State Re-opening Homestake for Deep Lab

By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer
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The state of South Dakota will begin reopening the Homestake gold mine in Lead in January, Gov. Mike Rounds says.

The state and a consortium of scientists hope to convert the mine into a national underground laboratory. The National Science Foundation is expected to choose a site for a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory in April.

A DUSEL at Homestake would be 7,400 feet underground, but Rounds' plan is to open an "interim" DUSEL 4,850 feet underground at Homestake, so scientists can begin experiments sooner. The first task will be to recommission hoists in the two main shafts, the Ross and the Yates, which will access to a main level at 4,850 feet.

Reopening the mine is a gamble for South Dakota. Homestake and the Henderson molybdenum mine in Colorado were the two finalist sites until earlier this year, when the NSF re-opened the application process. The NSF has set Jan. 9 as a deadline for 250-page site proposals.

Homestake and Henderson, however, remain the frontrunners.

Henderson is an accessible working mine. Homestake is closed, sealed and slowly filling with water, but Homestake also is deeper than Henderson. Deep labs protect sensitive experiments from cosmic rays.

Homestake supporters also have money advantage over Henderson. The South Dakota Legislature appropriated $35 million for the project, and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford has donated $70 million to the lab, pending NSF approval.

The South Dakota Science and Technology authority also has a $10 million federal grant, secured four years ago by Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. That money will be used to reopen the mine, science authority executive director Dave Snyder said Friday.

Phase one of the re-opening, to be completed by April 15, includes re-commissioning hoists and installing exhaust ventilation, which will draw air back into the mine. Donovan Construction of Spearfish already has begun renovating the Yates Dry, a building on the surface that gives access to the shaft.

Phase two, to be completed by Aug. 1, includes underground to make the two deep shafts safe for re-entry and to re-install underground water pumps.

Phase three, which runs through May 1, 2008, including pumping water, which remains hundreds of feet below the 4,850-foot level.

Gov. Rounds said the state was proceed "as if Homestake will be chosen" by the NSF in order to keep water below a depth of 5,000 feet.

If Henderson is selected instead of Homestake, Snyder said, South Dakota will have consult with the NSF to determine whether an interim DUSEL should be built at Homestake.

But state officials and scientists who support the Homestake proposal say the mine's great depth and the absence of ongoing mining activity give it a clear edge over Henderson.

The governor's announcement this week of the re-opening of the gold mine was a milestone for the Homestake project, which scientists first proposed in the fall of 2000.

Earlier this year, after years of negotiations, Rounds persuaded Barrick Gold. Corp. of Toronto to donate the mine to the state of South Dakota.

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